Last season, it wasn't until March 6th that the Buffalo Sabres jumped into the Eastern Conference's playoff picture for good. For the first 150 days of the 2010-2011 NHL season before March 6th, the Sabres were outside of the top eight for all but three of them—the first three days of the year.
Suddenly, though, the Sabres had finally cracked the ice and were off and running in the postseason field. Buffalo finished the season with a 9-1-2 record from from March 19th on and eventually slid past the New York Rangers for the No. 7 seed. The Sabres then took a 3-2 series lead in their quarterfinals matchup against the then-defending Conference Champion Philadelphia Flyers before falling in Games 6 and 7.
This summer, owner Terry Pegula opened up the bank account for spending of all sorts, and general manager Darcy Regier decided to take the opportunity and pour cash into a team that he hoped would soon turn into a Stanley Cup contender. And, in our minds, he's done exactly that.
Regier was able to an impressive handful of trades and signings he wouldn't have been able to do without the support of Pegula, and, though he really did spend al ...
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Article written by Mark Jones
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July 30th, 2011 by Mark Jones Leave a reply »
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